The first Halo 3 map pack has been made available. Descriptions of each map, …

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The Heroic Map Pack, the first downloadable content for Halo 3, is on offer from Xbox Live. The $10, three-map package was made briefly available yesterday and a few lucky gamers grabbed it. For the rest of us, this is our first chance to play...

Standoff. Standoff is a big-ish symmetrical map, great for Team Slayer, excellent
for Objective games and big enough for a couple of vehicles. It has
locked-down Bunkers for bases and lots of cover for players trying to
make their way from one base to the next. Although some say it has a
similar feel to Blood Gulch, the geometry and terrain is very different.

Rat’s Nest.Rat's Nest is a massive level set in the corridors and tunnels of a
Human Base near Kilimanjaro. You may recognize parts of it from Halo
3's Campaign mode. Effectively, it's a giant Oval, kind of like an
underground NASCAR track, with lots of vehicles and plenty of tunnels
criss-crossing the center area. It's designed for big team games,
Objective and Slayer, but also works brilliantly for game types like
Infection and Territories.

Foundry. Foundry is a very unique map—designed from the outset to be the most
customizable Halo 3 Forge map ever created. It's a large Warehouse,
which can be emptied quickly and then rebuilt any way you like, with a
brand new palette of objects such as walls, ramps, Mancannons and more.
Stuff you never had access to before and objects that can be used to
create fully functioning level designs, rather than simply altering our
existing map.

The maps are 800 Microsoft points today, but will be available for free next spring if you can hold out that long. Patience is a virtue.

Bungie has a FAQ posted at its site answering many questions about the content, from pricing (Bungie has no say, it's all up to Microsoft) to what will happen if you don't have an Internet connection (discs with the content could possibly be made available).